Automated devices and systems for providing individual parts at an output from a nonordered supply are well known. Generally, such systems draw individual parts from a reservoir of disoriented parts, orient them as desired, and transport them singly to another machine or tool, which then uses or otherwise operates on the individual part. Such systems commonly include a parts feeder system, a parts transporting system, and may include a tool or other further processing machinery.
The parts feeder system is generally designed to orient the individual parts in a desired fashion and to move them one at a time away from the parts reservoir. For example, a feeder system may operate to remove individual screws from a reservoir, orient them so that the head of each screw is in the rear relative to the screws' direction of motion, and move the individual screws to the input of a transporting system. Such feeder systems may include vibratory parts feeder machinery, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,497 and/or in co-pending commonly-owned application Ser. No. 08/806,109.
Currently-available parts feeder systems are relatively small machines able to sit on a workbench, cart, or similarly sized surface. A bowl or similar container within the parts feeder system forms the reservoir of parts to be used. To keep the system operating, the supply of parts in the bowl must be renewed. Some known parts feeder systems can only be supplied by manual loading, wherein a person accesses the bowl of the feeder system by opening or removing a cover or access panel and replenishes the supply directly. This type of system has a limitation in that the supply of parts available to the feeder system is determined by the capacity of its bowl, which, given the relatively small size of parts feeder systems, is commonly small. Thus, only a relatively small number of parts may be manually loaded or fed into such a direct-feed parts feeder system at one time. Direct manual loading is labor-intensive and must be performed relatively often, with resultant machine down-time.
Feeder systems have also been developed which have an integral or permanently attached auxiliary hopper for supplying parts to the bowl of the parts feeder system. The auxiliary hopper generally has a larger capacity than the bowl and is fixed in the system so that it continuously feeds parts into the bowl. However, available parts feeder systems having such an auxiliary hopper usually fix the auxiliary hopper over the bowl of the feeder system. Access to the system, particularly the bowl and associated machinery, is consequently impeded or blocked by the auxiliary hopper.
A further limitation to currently-available parts feeder systems is that they are single mode systems that operate either as a direct manually-fed or as an auxiliary hopper-fed system, but cannot be switched from one mode to operate in the other mode. That is, such parts feeder systems do not have the capability of switching between direct manual feed and auxiliary hopper feed due to the integral nature of the auxiliary hopper in the feeder system. Manual-feed systems are not configured to allow use of an auxiliary hopper and cannot be retrofitted. Thus, a purchaser of a manual-feed parts feeder system cannot upgrade it to include an auxiliary hopper, and therefore must purchase a new parts feeder if an auxiliary hopper feed is desired. Conversely, the purchaser of a parts feeder system having an auxiliary hopper will have difficulty accessing the bowl of the feeder system, and cannot replace or interchange the auxiliary hopper component by itself. Instead, the purchaser must purchase an entirely new parts feeder system if an alternate auxiliary hopper, or no hopper at all, is desired.